The best secret locations and Easter eggs in Spider-Man Remastered are scattered across Manhattan rather than hidden behind one giant quest marker. Start with Ben Parker's grave in Harlem, then visit Avengers Tower, the Sanctum Sanctorum, Empire State University, Nelson and Murdock, the Wakandan Embassy, and every backpack you can find. You will uncover Marvel references, personal memories, and Secret Photo Ops that the main story barely acknowledges.
These details are easy to miss because the game teaches you to move quickly. Swinging is so fluid that most players skim over rooftops, clear a district's objectives, and move on. That is a shame. Insomniac built the map as a living comic-book New York, and some of its best jokes only appear when you stop, look up, and interact with something that is not glowing orange.
This guide focuses on the PC version of Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, including the base game and its familiar map landmarks. The official Steam listing confirms the PC edition includes the full campaign and post-launch content, but the hidden locations below are available during ordinary exploration. No New Game Plus run or difficult combat setting is required.
Start With Manhattan's Most Missable Secret Photo Ops
Secret Photo Ops are the closest thing Spider-Man Remastered has to a scavenger hunt designed for obsessive players. Unlike ordinary Landmark missions, these locations do not initially appear as icons on the map. You must find a visually distinctive object, switch to the camera, and frame it correctly. The reward is a small amount of experience and progress toward the ESU Suit, one of the game's most satisfying unlocks because it turns Peter into a hoodie-wearing college Spider-Man.
The most efficient approach is not to search randomly. Swing low through each district and watch for unusual murals, sculptures, neon signs, statues, and architecture that looks too deliberately placed to be background dressing. The camera prompt appears only when you are close enough, so rooftops are often a poor vantage point. Land at street level, face the object, and hold the camera until the frame turns green.
Later in the game, the Proximity Sensor suit mod makes this hunt dramatically less painful by revealing nearby Secret Photo Ops. It does not solve the puzzle for you, but it converts a city-wide guessing game into a controlled sweep. Equip it before clearing districts, then use fast travel only after checking the immediate blocks around each station. The mod is especially helpful in Midtown and Greenwich, where dense buildings can hide a photo target behind an apparently ordinary facade.
| Secret target type | Where to look | Camera clue | Best tactic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Murals and street art | Street corners, alleys, underpasses | Large, colorful wall surface | Drop below roof height and scan building sides |
| Statues and monuments | Parks, plazas, civic buildings | Distinct silhouette against the skyline | Stand several steps back for a clean frame |
| Signs and storefronts | Commercial streets and neighborhood blocks | Unusual lettering or Marvel branding | Walk the sidewalk instead of swinging overhead |
| Architectural details | Churches, campuses, towers | Decorative feature not tied to an activity | Use rooftops to line up the full structure |
Do not confuse Secret Photo Ops with Landmark Photo Ops. Landmarks are revealed by towers and award Landmark Tokens; secret shots remain hidden until discovered. If you are chasing the ESU Suit, this distinction matters. The suit is tied to all 50 Secret Photo Ops, so a nearly complete collection can still leave you wondering why the final unlock has not appeared.
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Three major Marvel locations are sitting in Manhattan, and none needs a story mission to become memorable. Avengers Tower rises in the Upper East Side, while the Sanctum Sanctorum stands in Greenwich. The Wakandan Embassy is also found in the Upper East Side, giving the district an absurd concentration of superhero history.
Avengers Tower is the obvious one. Its huge illuminated A makes it impossible to miss, but the detail is in how Spider-Man interacts with it. Land on the roof, walk around the perimeter, and use Photo Mode to appreciate the scale of the building against the skyline. There is no secret Avengers mission waiting inside, and you cannot freely explore the tower as an interior space. That limitation is worth noting because many players waste time searching for a hidden entrance that does not exist.
The Sanctum Sanctorum is more understated. Look for the distinctive circular window and the ornate facade in Greenwich. It is Doctor Strange's residence in Marvel lore, and the game treats it like a real New York landmark rather than a loud crossover set piece. Approach from the street for the clearest view, then climb to the roof and inspect the surrounding skyline. The building is a perfect example of Insomniac's restraint: the reference is obvious to Marvel fans, but it does not hijack Peter's grounded story.
Near the Upper East Side's diplomatic buildings, the Wakandan Embassy carries the most political weight. Its design and signage make the reference clear without requiring Black Panther to appear. Photographing it as a Landmark also grants the usual Landmark Tokens, which can be spent on suit upgrades, gadgets, and suit mods. That makes these sightseeing stops useful for progression rather than pure trivia.
| Location | District | What it references | What you can do there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avengers Tower | Upper East Side | The Avengers and Stark-era superhero New York | Climb, photograph, and use as a skyline landmark |
| Sanctum Sanctorum | Greenwich | Doctor Strange and the Masters of the Mystic Arts | Photograph the facade and inspect the rooftop view |
| Wakandan Embassy | Upper East Side | Black Panther and Wakanda | Register it as a Landmark and collect tokens |
| Rand Enterprises | Midtown and surrounding commercial blocks | Iron Fist and Marvel's wider corporate world | Spot the branding while clearing nearby objectives |
These buildings also make good route anchors. Clear the nearby Surveillance Towers first, then circle outward in a spiral. The towers remove fog from the map, but they do not automatically reveal every secret interaction. For a broader look at how modern PC ports handle performance and image quality, Steamoz's guide to max-FPS settings offers useful general tuning habits, especially if you are playing with ray-traced reflections enabled.
Find Ben Parker's Grave and Peter's Quietest Memorials
The most important hidden location is not a superhero headquarters. It is Ben Parker's grave in the Harlem cemetery. You can reach the cemetery during free roam, but the interaction is easy to overlook because it does not behave like a standard collectible. Search the rows of headstones and look for the interaction prompt. Peter will kneel beside Ben's grave, giving you a short, completely optional moment that explains more about his motivation than another combat arena ever could.
The scene works because the game does not turn it into a reward screen. There is no token, no XP burst, and no dramatic villain ambush. Peter simply visits the man whose death shaped his entire life. If you are playing after finishing the campaign, the scene lands differently: his relationship with Aunt May, his guilt over failing people, and his determination to protect New York all feel more connected when you deliberately return to this spot.
Use the cemetery as a pause between activities rather than trying to rush through it. Walk the paths, check the other names, and rotate the camera around the surrounding Harlem buildings. The cemetery is also a useful reminder that the city is not only built out of mission spaces. It has places that exist to establish emotional geography.
Peter's personal history is spread through the backpack collectibles as well. Each backpack contains a small object from an earlier chapter of his life: school memories, old gadgets, costumes, and jokes that reward players who read the accompanying descriptions. They are not random loot. Together, the backpacks chart the gap between the inexperienced Spider-Man Peter once was and the more confident hero you control in the campaign.
Backpacks also contain some of the game's most direct comic-book nods. You will find references to earlier Spider-Man adventures, old relationships, and embarrassing mistakes that Peter would rather forget. Their audio logs and text descriptions are worth reading, particularly if you care about the version of Peter Insomniac is building. The collectibles add character without interrupting the main narrative's momentum.
Explore ESU, Nelson and Murdock, and Hell's Kitchen
Empire State University in Greenwich is one of the most important non-superhero locations on the map. It is Peter's academic world, and it gives the city a little more texture than a chain of crime scenes. Search the campus buildings and courtyards for Landmark prompts, then look for the recognizable ESU branding. Peter's science background is not just dialogue flavor; the university helps explain why he can move between laboratory work, gadget design, and street-level detective work.
Hell's Kitchen contains another excellent Marvel reference: the Nelson and Murdock law office. The sign is easy to miss if you swing past at rooftop height, so approach along the street and scan the commercial building fronts. The office points directly toward Matt Murdock and Daredevil without forcing a cameo into the campaign. You cannot walk inside and meet him, but the sign is enough to make the neighborhood feel connected to the larger Marvel universe.
Look around Hell's Kitchen for other subtle references to the Defenders corner of Marvel, including locations associated with private investigators and neighborhood crime. Not every apparent reference is an interactable Easter egg, so treat these as environmental storytelling rather than quest objectives. The game often rewards recognition more than button prompts.
Fisk Tower is another location worth revisiting after the opening chapters. The first mission makes it a combat destination, but its presence remains important once Wilson Fisk is removed. The tower becomes a visual marker for the game's shift in power: a criminal empire has been disrupted, yet the city is not suddenly safe. Swing past it after clearing a few Demon or Sable activities and the contrast becomes clear.
| Landmark | District | Reference | Why it is easy to miss |
|---|---|---|---|
| Empire State University | Greenwich | Peter's education and scientific life | Its campus blends into dense city blocks |
| Nelson and Murdock | Hell's Kitchen | Daredevil and Matt Murdock | The sign is clearer from street level |
| Fisk Tower | Midtown | Wilson Fisk's criminal empire | Players often never return after the opening mission |
| Alias Investigations references | Hell's Kitchen | Jessica Jones and Marvel's street heroes | Environmental details are not always marked as objectives |
If the PC port is stuttering while you tour the busiest districts, fix that before hunting collectibles. Steamoz's troubleshooting coverage for crashes and rescued FPS is not Spider-Man-specific, but the same basics apply: verify files, update the GPU driver, and avoid maxing every reflection setting just because the preset allows it.
Read Every Backpack and Watch for the Biggest Easter Eggs
The backpack system is where Spider-Man Remastered quietly becomes a playable archive of Peter Parker's life. You can hear a short recording or read a description for each item, and the tone ranges from heartfelt to genuinely funny. The references include old suits, forgotten equipment, classmates, relationships, and the awkward logistics of being a superhero with no reliable storage space.
Do not simply collect a backpack and immediately fast-travel away. Open the collection tab and read the item description. Insomniac hides much of the personality in those lines, not in the model itself. A seemingly ordinary object can become a callback to an earlier Spider-Man story, while a joke about Peter's day job can explain why he is constantly short on cash.
The game's character bios are worth reading for a similar reason. They fill in details about Silver Sable, Yuri Watanabe, Martin Li, Otto Octavius, and other characters that the campaign assumes rather than explains. The bios do not change combat stats or unlock a secret suit, but they deepen the relationships that make the main missions work.
Then there is Stan Lee's cameo. It appears during a story moment rather than as a free-roam collectible, so it is possible to miss the significance if you are focused on the objective. His appearance is brief, warm, and unmistakably designed as a tribute. It is one of the rare Easter eggs that feels less like a checklist reward and more like a thank-you note to the person who helped make Spider-Man part of modern pop culture.
Suit unlocks are another kind of Easter egg. The Advanced Suit is Peter's new Insomniac design, while the Classic Suit, Noir Suit, Spider-Punk Suit, Iron Spider, Spider-Man 2099 Black Suit, and other costumes reference different eras and adaptations. Their abilities are not just cosmetic early in the game: each suit power and mod setup can change how you approach encounters. If you want to experiment, pair the Spider-Punk suit's Rock Out power with crowd-control gadgets, or use the Iron Arms power when a group of armored enemies starts overwhelming your dodge timing.
| Easter egg | How to find it | What it adds | Missable detail |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Parker's grave | Search the Harlem cemetery | Peter's emotional foundation | No standard collectible marker or major reward |
| Stan Lee cameo | Play through the relevant campaign scene | A personal Marvel tribute | Easy to overlook during the objective |
| Backpack memories | Scan backpack signals across districts | Peter's history and comic references | Descriptions contain the best context |
| Defenders references | Inspect Hell's Kitchen storefronts | Marvel's street-level connections | Many signs are environmental rather than interactive |
| Suit references | Unlock suits with activity tokens | Decades of Spider-Man designs | Suit powers can be overlooked as cosmetic extras |
Insomniac's own official studio site is useful context for understanding how much of this world was built specifically for its Spider-Man universe, while Marvel's official game page highlights the broader character legacy behind the suits and locations.
Use Photo Mode to See What Normal Exploration Misses
Photo Mode is not just a screenshot tool in Spider-Man Remastered; it is the best way to inspect the city's hidden visual jokes. Pause on a rooftop, widen the field of view, and look behind billboards, water towers, and elevated roadways. You will spot posters, graffiti, newspaper headlines, and tiny rooftop props that disappear when you are moving at full speed.
For the cleanest discoveries, turn off the HUD, lower the time of day only if the lighting hides the object, and use the free camera to check both sides of a building. Ray-traced reflections can make wet streets and glass towers look spectacular, but they are not necessary for finding secrets. A stable 60 frames per second is more useful than reflections at their highest setting when you are swinging through Midtown looking for a tiny sign.
| PC setting | Recommended starting point | Performance trade-off | Exploration benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ray-traced reflections | Medium or Off while collecting | High GPU and CPU cost in dense streets | Mostly improves windows, water, and puddles |
| Texture quality | High if VRAM allows | Moderate VRAM usage | Keeps signs, murals, and backpack details sharp |
| Object range | High | Small to moderate CPU cost | Preserves distant landmark detail while swinging |
| Upscaling | DLSS or equivalent Quality mode | Usually improves frame rate | Maintains readable city detail during movement |
There is also a practical reason to explore manually instead of relying on a guide map. Spider-Man's traversal lets you approach landmarks from unusual angles, and some references only make sense when viewed from the street. Clear a district's towers, equip the Proximity Sensor, sweep one block at a time, and use Photo Mode whenever a building looks deliberately familiar. That routine finds far more than rushing between objective icons.
Finally, remember that not every secret is a gameplay reward. Some unlock a suit or add tokens; others exist only as a clever sign, a grave, a voice line, or a tiny piece of Peter's past. That mix is exactly why these locations remain worth visiting after the campaign. They make Manhattan feel authored rather than assembled, and they reward the habit Spider-Man himself encourages: slow down, look closely, and investigate the city from every angle.
For more collectible-focused hunting, Steamoz's coverage of secret locations and hidden rewards and hidden reward routes offers the same kind of methodical approach. In Spider-Man Remastered, though, the biggest payoff is not always an item. Sometimes it is finding the one quiet corner of New York that Peter has been carrying with him all along.